COLLEGE TEAMMATES TO REUNITE ON SUNDAY
Brandon Stokley and Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme were college teammates at Southwestern Louisiana from 1995-96. Fast forward 12 years and both are 10-year NFL veterans.
“I never would have though either one of us would have lasted this long,” Stokley said. “It is pretty special. I think both of us feel we are pretty blessed to have this opportunity to keep playing.”
The two former teammates keep in touch and keep tabs on one another.
“I do keep a pretty keen eye on Denver — I want to see what they do, I want to see what Brandon does week-in, week-out,” Delhomme said.
Stokley said that coming from a smaller school and having the mindset that they had to prove themselves is part of the reason both players have had such long and successful NFL careers.
“You can’t ever take anything for granted,” he said. “You have to work a little bit harder than everybody else.”
A CAROLINA HOMECOMING FOR BLY
Sunday will be a homecoming of sorts for Dre’ Bly. Bly played collegiately at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and said he expects to have a lot of family that will be making the five-hour commute from his home town of Chesapeake, Virginia to Charlotte.
Bly is also looking forward to stepping back on the field at Bank of America Stadium; he said he has a fond recollection of that venue.
“It was my rookie year, I was the nickel back and I had a chance to intercept a pass,” Bly said. “It was against Muhsin (Muhammad), I think Steve Beurlein was the quarterback, he threw me a slant and I intercepted it and took it back for like 57 yards. That’s one of my great memories that I have playing there in that stadium.”
BOYD WANTS TO LIVE UP TO NO. 30
Recently activated tailback Cory Boyd could see his first action of the season Sunday in Charlotte. Not only will Boyd try to follow the success of teammates such as Peyton Hillis in stepping up and carrying the load, but he also will have to live up to the No. 30 on his jersey.
“I wore No. 3 in college and now No. 30, it is an honor to wear it,” he said. “I am not saying I am the next Terrell Davis, but I will try and follow in his footsteps the best way possible. I will wear his number with pride.”
-Jake Grilley, DenverBroncos.com
Here are some photos from today’s practice.
Tags: Brandon Stokley, carolina panthers, Cory Boyd, Dre Bly, Jake Grilley, Jeb Putzier, Uncategorized
Be interesting to see what the “talking heads” say if the Broncos manage to pull out a win on Sunday. Already we were the FIRST west coast team to win in the east coast (Jets) and we have shown flashes of brilliance. Big plus is that we have a 4pm (ET) start time, so the time zone change shouldn’t kill us (just like the Jets game). I am chalking Sunday up as a loss, but we shall see….Just need to stay healthy and hope we clinch against Buffalo if at all possible. No WAY do I want to see a potential showdown with SD for the division title. GIT ER DUN BRONCOS! We need to rest up vs. SD before the playoffs start.
woa wormy lets not get to crazy we have a very real chance of beating these guys especialy if champ is there to cover steve smith and every1 lets not forget sd still has kc tampa then us all they have to do is loose 1 and they cant catch us lets be positive and believe in a team that has shown this year they play up or down to the level of their opponants(think i spelt that wrong)
I hear ya jmonk. I SERIOUSLY doubt SD can manage to string ONE win together, much less 3 in a row so I have little doubt we are playoff bound. I think we are CAPABLE of beating this team, especially if Jay and the Offense don’t turn over the ball. It is Carolina’s running game that has me a little worried about this week. I think our offense is going to give them all kinds of trouble. And YES this team DOES play to the level of the competition. If #24 can contain Smith and the D can keep the run game SOMEWHAT in check, there is no WAY Carolina can out score us. #6 is going to have to have a GREAT game tho……
im going to call it now cutler will pass for at least 2 tds 350 yrds give or take and well win a close 1 with 7 points or less beeing the differance.( i hope to go it turns out to be a bigger differ. but a w’s a w)
im going to call it now cutler will pass for at least 2 tds 350 yrds give or take and well win a close 1 with 7 points or less beeing the differance.( i hope to god it turns out to be a bigger differ. but a w’s a w)
oops sorry broncos country hate it when i do that
Hey guys, great posts. Honestly, this team has the capability of blowing them out and here’s why:
If champ is back that is HUGE! Coverage wise and at run stopping support.
Our O Line is THE BEST IN THE NFL hands down! Now add bell & boyd and the defense is going to have to respect it. H*ll we know Denver can run on offense and that’s with average o line, this O LINE is THE BEST!
CAROLINA’S RB’S DON’T SCARE ME! What RB has had amazing stats since personnel changes and the coach going back to pads?????????
Atlanta ? Jet’s yes Jones did but he had 1 long run. KC? It’s a remarkable difference?
HEY ZINSER OR GRAY!!!!
Can you do me a huge favor? I’m confident our Defense has made HUGE strides over the season. Are you able to get stats of our defense weeks 1 – 8 vs. 8 – now?
I just love how everyone compares us to #32 in week 15 but doesn’t realize that we shut down major offensive power houses! just curious.
WE WIN THIS GAME. CUTLER AND RECV’ING CREW WILL HAVE HUGE DAYS AND THE BB’S KEEP THE DEFENSE HONEST.
GO GET EM’ BOYS!
Yea I’m interested to see if Bell can carry the full load, and just how good Boyd is.
Probably what I’m anticipating most though is Clady v. Peppers. That ought to be interesting.
Also it’ll be reallllly good to have Champ back to cover Smith…not gonna lie that dude is crazy good.
As for Carolina’s running game, yea they’re good but Tampa was SLOPPY monday night, they were missing tackles left and right. If our D can keep it clean, make some good hits, and STAY DISCIPLINED we definitely have a chance.
Not to mention our O needs to keep from turning it over and it’s in the bag.
I’m confident our team will play a great game against Carolina. They pasted the test last week against KC. Early in the season adverse conditions seemed to rock this team. They all believe now, there was no quit last week , no drop off in execution when things started off bad. On the contrary , this team as a whole stepped it up a notch and brought it down on an inspired KC team. You can’t win them all, but I don’t see these guys giving up or letting us down . It’s December and they know it, they will be ready for the Panthers! Go Broncos!
Does anyone think that the signing of Putzier means the end of Chad Mustard? I think its only a matter of time, Mustard didnt play at all last week and was a non-factor. Putzier is a better receiver and blocker and is sort of in the mold of Nate Jackson. I hope Denver signs one more back, preferably one who is close to the same mold that hillis was. Jay has excelled with that kind of running game and in the shotgun.
Okay, I’m sorry but I’m somewhat offended here. I’m going to give Boyd the chance he deserves like everyone else but no one should ever be able to wear that #30 jersey. To me, that’s like Cutler wearing the infamous #7. I don’t like this one bit… yeah I know Boyd stated that he’ll wear it with pride and all that good stuff, but Terrell made his mark on and with this team so much his jersey number should’ve been retired by now. He left too much of an impression for his number to still be out there for someone else to wear in Broncos Country. I’m very uneasy about this, and I’m going to be so honest – I don’t like the very though of that #30 on someone else’s back. Its got nothing to do with Boyd himself but the fact that #30 hasn’t been retired by now. That is an infamous and notorious number in the Mile High City… it only belongs to one person like #7 belongs solely to Elway in Denver. Sorry I spent so long on this but I really don’t like someone else wearing a number that someone else wore that meant so much to this team.
As for the matchups of our players vs. some of the opposing players… should be alot of fun to watch. I really do hope Champ comes back this week, I totally expected him to be back for the KC game and he wasn’t which surprised me but hey if he wasn’t ready, he wasn’t ready. I don’t want him to rush coming back when we could use him even more in the playoffs. We all know we could really use him come Sunday but we beat the Jets without him and two handfuls of rookies… if we can make that happen, ANYTHING is possible for us if we put our minds to it. I believe in this team whole-heartedly and I have my entire life. We can make any miracle happen and its not because we got lucky… this team has been blessed by all means and we are going places we haven’t been to in years. Crush those kitties!!!!!
With faith as always…
GO BRONCOS!!!!!!!
lets go cory boyd show these mu$#%#%ka’s what that runnin game is like
I don’t know anything about Boyd, but i hope he can live up to the #30 that he will be wearing. If he can do that, then we are all over the cats. Tampa just couldn’t tackle at all monday night, so it is hard to say if it was that the cats were that good, or that the bucs were that bad. Either way, the Broncos just need to do their jobs and not worry about what other teams did against the cats. Bring us home a win BRONCOS.
–GO BRONCOS–
Hey all, some great posts tonight. I”m in a agreeance with a couple of you. i believe #30 should have been retired already and resting in the ROF. Lets hope this boyd kid can do something this week along with Bell. Turnovers will be key this week. we need to keep tight control of that ball. Jay is set for a huge game as well as our receivers. Our D should step up and play like they have against other big named backs. i’m liking how we are the underdog in this game once again. it makes me smile everytime i read a sportswriters comments saying how we are going to lose this game. the only reason i say this (before i get bashed by everyone) is because the team used the same thing as motivation in the Jets and Falcons games and look what that did for us.
If we pull this off and i have faith that we will, then the whole league can stop talking down about us and know that we are for real. yes our division is a joke, but we are for real, hence the 3 game lead.
let’s keep our record perfect against this division and against the Panthers.
Keep the Faith,
GO BRONCOS!!!!
I predict yet another great Broncos victory. I just hope the snow in Utah scheduled for this weekend doesn’t ruin my dish because then I can’t watch. That’s my biggest doubt about this game. With that said, it’s time to make Jake Delhomme look as mediocre as he is. There is no difference between Delhomme and Jake Plummer except Delhomme wears #17.
I noticed the 30 as well, but we shouldn’t take it so hard, I mean they have all of what, 3 numbers left to give out in the 20′s and 30′s? I mean I loved TD, but I’m not ready to see a 27 or 29 running around out there. As much as I like Putz, let’s not go overboard here. He was a good blocker, he wasn’t an all pro or anything like that by any means. He’s here to help out when we play Indy and to give Schef some rest, that’s it. He’s a role player, and a good one at that.
Hey guys, or gals I agree with you all to a point. I love TD and yes he was a HUGE part of the Super Bowl runs and it would be a great honor for him to have his # retired. But honestly they can’t affored to start retiring #’s all willy nilly. There are only 100 numbers available and if they start retiring them where do you stop? I think Elway’s # is the only one that should be retired at this time. He was the franchise for so many years and I firmly believe the Broncos would’ve won at least 2 of the 4 Super Bowls he led us to if Reeves would’ve used him like he was meant to be, but that is then. There are so many great Broncos that you could argue for their # retirement that there would to little numbers available for the season.
Also lets not put anymore pressure on the kids like saying things “living up to the number” because they have enough to deal with just learning the system… And I’m sure he knows the history so lets just congratulate him and show him our great support we have as we are the fans of the Greatest Team in the NFL!!! Go Broncos!
I believe that once the player who dawned a specific number to greatness, enters into the NFL Hall of Fame, then the team should consider retiring the number. Davis was awesome for us, and nothing against all of the former great Broncos. If we started retiring numbers for all the Bronco greats then our RB would be wearing 40′s and 50′s probably. Anyway, the game this week I want to see Steve Smith get shut down hardcore. Make him be a cry baby like I know he is. I think if we can contain the run like we have been lately, I see a great game for us this week. Cutler, don’t hang Putzier out to dry like Plummer used to or we’ll probably be sending another TE to IR.
Go Broncos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey Guys,
Time to see what we are really made of? I like are chances this week. I hope we do well. Have a question for you broncos fans, when we make the playoffs, who will we play? I know it looks like the Colts or the Ravens but what has to happen in order for us to play the Baltimore. I sure hope we do cuase I don’t want to see the Colts in our first playoff game in 3 years. As for the game this weekend, Lets put up 34 points and let’ s see what happens. I need another good week from the Broncos so I don’t break anything else in my house………………..
Definitely some good thoughts and it’s good to see that the consensus is that we can win this game. I think that Carolina will be as agressive as we were with the short week, so we can’t let down. I don’t really care about jersey numbers just yet, just the game plan and we need to play well. It will be a lot of pressure on Cutler and while I know some days are better than others, let’s hope he has a good day as some of the other matchups will take care of themselves.
I agree that Elway’s #7 is the only one that should be retired for right now…although Shannon Sharpe and Rod Smith could possibly be added to that list…and being an LSU fan/alumni…I saw Cory Boyd play at South Carolina and he can run (although it seems like when motivated) but I think it might be a nice addition to Bell